Friday, January 04, 2008

Some good advice from MSM

Listen up Toronto Tories.

John Turley-Ewart has some excellent advice - Have your star candidates available to the media.

Let's not blow it over some basic communication skills.

10 comments:

Nicol DuMoulin said...

I agree. I wonder if all of the Toronto Center citizens who are no doubt cheering Barack Obama will give Meridith a chance.

...or will the Libs try to paint him as a racist too.

Nicol DuMoulin said...

I meant Mer-e-dith...damn those communication skills!

Joanne (True Blue) said...

lol! Nicol, this is one area where both the federal conservatives and the provincial need to take some lessons from the Liberals. i.e. How to use the media to your benefit rather than the other way around.

Kinsella calls it 'earned media'.

Nicol DuMoulin said...

I agree, but it's a lot easier when the majority of media is already in the bag for your party, which is the case with the Liberals.

Remember the way John Tory courted the media non-stop last summer and before...

I suspect "earned media" this time will mean the Lib spin meisters convincing their cronies in the media to keep referring to Meredith as a "Baptist Minister" while never showing a photograph of him so as to convey the image of him as a racist, white, right-wing Christian Evangelical.

I am sure there are Liberal tacticians considering how plausible that strategy is right now. I wish I could say I was only joking!

Nevertheless, I do agree that conservatives have to learn more about media, culture and art. It is one area where they are sorely lacking.

Anonymous said...

No one ever talked about Bill Blaikie being an United Church Minister and he is a very popular MP. The previous occupation shouldn't have anything to do with the political scene.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the Conservatives should consider attending their own candidates schools or conservative college run by Peter Van Loan a while back?

Got excellent notes that I'll sell back to them if they want them?

Back to school for the Tories!

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I think the reason for this display of incompetence is that the Conservatives in Toronto Centre know they have no hope in hell, and can't muster the energy to make the effort to begin to rebuild a profile in this riding.

Even though it contains Rosedale, demographically it is dominated by the the gay community and a rather poor apartment-building filled region south of Bloor street. For once in their lives, the rich in Rosedale have relatively little say in what goes on - one vote one person....

I live in Toronto-Center, and in the current polarized political climate there are few ridings in Canada less likely to elect a conservative member of parliament.

However, the work they do now lays the seeds for the future, and how easy it is to forget that this riding elected David Crombie for the PCs to 4 times in row, sometimes with large pluralities.

They gotta try harder.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

They gotta try harder.

Exactly. Interesting to hear from someone in that riding. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

What this riding needs is someone with a strong Toronto profile, with a reputation and ideas somewhat left of the average CPC candidate, and at the risk of playing at the politics of polarization (another lesson from the Libs), the candidate should be gay.



The CPC has unfortunately created a reputation, or an image, for itself as a "city hater", and none more so than Toronto. They really have to change this.

Anonymous said...

Conservatives don't hate cities the cities hate them. Why? because most municipal government is staunchly left wing that's why and also big media is in the cities.. our friends indeed. (real conservative)